Essay On The Relationship Of Nora And Torvald In A Doll's House

Nora is introduced as a housewife who believes the true meaning of marriage revolving around obedience. She demonstrates the true definition of a respectful daughter, a faithful and obedient wife, and a dependable mother. It wasn’t unusual for Torvald to throw his weight around towards Nora. He attempts to limit her macaroon intake “Hasn’t nibbled some pastry,” (Ibsen 788) she replies, “You know I could never think of going against you” (Ibsen 788). In the eyes of Nora, he is considered a confident, powerful, and successful businessman since he is receiving a promotion as a bank manager after the New Year. Torvald’s sense of marriage can be summed up that he is the king of the castle “This is the way it should be my darling Nora. What-ever comes, you’ll see: when it really counts, I have strength and courage enough as a man to take the whole weight myself” (Ibsen 814). Torvald’s view is she is just a “doll” in his doll house. To him, it was important to stress there was no such thing as equality in their partnership, he

Torvald would never have thought she were capable of it, since during that era it was unrealistic of women to leave their houses but rather put up with the difficulties they faced. Ibsen highlights society's domineering outlooks of marriage and the interactions of two people naïvely pretending to be in love. Throughout the play Ibsen reveals the fragile attributes of his characters to help enhance the play-like nature of their relationship, the role of women, and Nora's course of self-discovery.

Nora’s second rebellion was when she left Torvald and her children. The society she lived in demanded that she should submit to her husband and that she should take a place under him. Society considered women to be property of their husbands and that they should fulfil their every command. When Krogstad tries to blackmail Nora, and Torvald didn’t even support her she realized that there was a problem. Then finally when Torvald realizes that his social stature will not be harmed he displays his real feeling for Nora, both physically and emotionally. It is at this time when Nora decides that she doesn’t want to be controlled by Torvald anymore and she told him that she was going to leave him. By leaving Torvald she is not only shutting him out but also forgetting everything in her past. When Torvald tries to reconcile with her she explains that all her life she was treated like a child. And how she was "always merry, never happy", she never got to make any decisions on her own. Then she explains to him how she

We also see his demeaning behavior when he underestimates her ability to handle money. Herman Weigand points out that "Torvald tells her in money matters she has inherited her father 's disposition" (Weigand 27). So Torvald 's condescending language and names keep Nora in her place as a doll where he likes her to be. James Huneker put it best when he said

Torvald was ill and the only thing that could save him would be time spent away from the cold. Nora never tells Torvald about this loan because he doesn’t believe in borrowing. Toward the end of the play when Torvald finds out about the loan, his true colors come out and Nora finally gets to see what her husband is really like. This is what really causes Nora to leave her family and to try to find who she really is. This situation also causes Torvald to change a little as well. Near the end when Torvald finds out about the loan, he gets angry with Nora. Once he learns that she is going to leave him and the children, he begins to change his ways a little and starts treating her with a little more respect. He hopes this will make Nora stay, but she already has her mind set and finally has control for once in her life.

Nora begins to take offence to the words of Torvald. He refers to her as his most “prized possession”, and continues to say that he often imagines her as though she is his mistress, and she is a temptress. Nora continues to get offended, telling Torvald she doesn’t want any of this. Nora begins

Nora's second, and strongest, break from society's rules was shown by her decision to leave Torvald and her children.  Society demanded that she take a place under her husband.  This is shown in the way Torvald spoke down to her saying things like "worries that you couldn't possibly help me with" (Ibsen Page #), and "Nora, Nora, just like a woman" (Ibsen page #).  She is almost considered to be property of his: "Mayn't I look at my dearest treasure?  At all the beauty that belongs to no one but me - that's all my very own" (Ibsen page #)?  By walking out she takes a position equal to her husband and destroys the very foundation of society's expectations of a wife and mother.  Nora also breaks society's expectations of staying in a marriage since divorce was frowned upon during that era.  Her decision represented a break from all expectations placed upon a woman by society. Throughout the play Nora is looked down upon and treated as a possession by her husband. She is

Another main difference between Torvald and Nora is how much their self-image matters to them individually. Nora's self-image is the complete opposite of Torvalds. From Nora's perspective she doesn't have much of an image to produce, but she does have the image of herself that Torvald can see along with her close friends. She really cares about what her husband thinks about her so she does whatever she can to make sure that his opinion doesn’t change, she gets worried by how she will look in his eyes after he finds out about the crime she has committed, this is why she tries to stop Torvald from sending Krogstad his notice, "Call it back, Torvald! There's still time. Oh, Torvald, call it back!..."(1304) Nora acts like this because once Torvald finds out what she has done, she knows that he is going to look at her a different way than what he does now. Nora doesn’t want this so she tries preventing Torvald from doing his job. On the other hand, Torvald cares a lot about the way others look at him, he thinks that once people find out what his wife has done that it will destroy his reputation and people will tend to look down upon him. When he finds out about what his wife has done

the play and keeps her within his own game, as if he was playing with

In his play, 'A Doll?s House,' Henrik Ibsen shows a marriage built only on appearances, and not love. Both Nora the wife, and Torvald the husband, pretend they are in love throughout the story. However, love should be patient and kind, and their love is anything but that. Nora treats her husband as a father figure. Her feelings towards Torvald are more about dependence than love. Torvald treats Nora like a child or a pet. He gets very angry and frustrated with Nora, and he does not truly love her. True love is perfect, not angry, controlling, and dependent as Nora and Torvald are to each other.

Torvald’s wife Nora is the center of several of the traits that classify him as a morally ambiguous character. Nora is more like a possession to Torvald than a soul mate or wife. She is like a doll to him, something that he can control and shape into what he wants. Nora is treated like a child and as if she can not function a second without him to be there to tell her what to do. Her dependency on him is extremely important to him because that is

In “A Doll’s House,” Ibsen presents us with the drama of Torvald and Nora Helmer, a husband and wife who have been married for eight years and whose lives are controlled by the society in which they live. Their relationship, although seemingly happy, is marred by the constraints of social attitudes around them and their perceived gender roles. Creating even more conflict is the thin veil of deceit between them, which inevitably breaks them apart.

“… My husband will see for himself what a bad man you are, and then

In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House play things was not what it seemed. It also teaches us a lesson on the consequences of having a marriage lacking trust and poor communication. The marriage of Torvald and Nora seemed normal like any other marriage in that time period. Torvald was the bread winner Nora was a house wife and she took care of their two children. Nora thought that the only thing she was missing to be the happiest person on earth was money, and all her problems were going to disappear. Since her husband was going to start a new job she believed that soon her dream was going to come true. All Nora wanted was to have a good life with her family, but what she did not know was that her secret was going to destroy her marriage with

Here, Nora pulls together the tragic circumstances. She sees that she was never truly happy in the house, just content. Her father kept her as a child would a doll, and Torvald continued this when they were married. They formed her opinions for her, set expectations to which she was supposed to adhere, and wrote a vague script of how she was supposed to act. She was like a puppet, with no thoughts or actions of her own. When she finally realizes the injustice being done to her, she decides to free herself.